Youth Space brings free summer activities to Gatineau's Hautes-Plaines sector

Tashi Farmilo

An open field at Parc des Hautes-Plaines has turned into one of the busiest youth hangouts in Gatineau this summer. Since June 22, kids and young adults aged 7 to 35 have been showing up daily for free sports gear, games, culture and outdoor activities at L'Espace Jeunesse, a project run by Loisir sport Outaouais (LSO) with funding from Quebec's Ministry of Public Security and backing from the City of Gatineau. The space will stay open until August 14.

The idea started with a problem the city wanted to get ahead of. An analysis by the Gatineau police service flagged sector 5, which covers the Mutchmore, Mont-Bleu and Hautes-Plaines neighbourhoods, as an area where young people needed more positive outlets. The city handed the file to Loisir sport Outaouais, asking the organization to build something that would give youth a reason to gather, develop new skills and feel more connected to their community, rather than leaving them with nowhere to go.

What LSO built is a hangout with a purpose. Youth can borrow sports equipment for free, discover new activities, and connect with an on-site youth worker as well as a street worker from L'Héberge-Ados, all in a space designed to feel welcoming and safe. The whole thing runs on a budget of $40,000, stretched over a longer window from September 2025 to December 2026 to cover both the summer programming and the cost of setting up the space itself.

The response caught even the organizers off guard. The equipment loan service alone sees more than 20 loans a day, and word has already spread: several other Gatineau neighbourhoods have reached out asking for a similar space of their own. LSO says feedback from youth, families and partners has been overwhelmingly positive, even though it's still early for drawing firm conclusions.

For now, L'Espace Jeunesse is a pilot, a test run to see whether this kind of intervention actually moves the needle for young people. LSO will judge that by tracking how many youth show up, how often they come back, how diverse the crowd is, what people are saying, and how strong the relationships with community partners turn out to be. If the numbers hold up and partners want to keep going, the organization says it would look seriously at extending the model to other parts of Gatineau facing similar challenges.

"The first few weeks already demonstrate that young people show up when you offer them a welcoming, free and lively space," said Diane Fontaine, development officer at Loisir sport Outaouais. In the organization's official release, she put it this way: "The success we've seen since opening shows how important it is to invest collectively in our youth and their community."